被盯上的宜家

被盯上的宜家

在歐洲開始打擊跨國企業(yè)避稅行為之際，歐洲議會報告指出，IKEA過去6年來透過比利時與盧森堡等國的課稅漏洞避稅，并將部分分店權(quán)利金轉(zhuǎn)進荷蘭，最后流入歐洲中部小國列支敦斯登，估計規(guī)避稅款高達10億歐元，當然，宜家是否定的。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

breach 違背[bri?t?]

facilitate 促進[f?'s?l?te?t]

Liechtenstein 列支敦斯登['l?kt?nsta?n]

multinational 跨國公司[m?lt?'næ?(?)n(?)l]

deliberately 謹慎地[d?'l?b?r?tli]

franchisee 特許經(jīng)營人[,frænt?a?'zi?]

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Ikea avoided paying €1bn tax in Europe, claim MEPs（410words）

By Vanessa Houlder

-----------------------------------------------------

Ikea has avoided paying at least €1bn of tax in Europe over the past six years, claim politicians who demanded a probe into whether the furniture company’s “reprehensible” tax arrangements breached state-aid rules.

The MEPS said their investigation had uncovered “large scale avoidance” facilitated by the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium and involved companies owned through secretive foundations in Liechtenstein and the Netherlands.

The report commissioned by the Greens and EFA group in the European parliament is the latest in a series of investigations over the past decade into the tax affairs of one of the world’s best-known companies.

The business, which has previously acknowledged its “optimised tax structure”, is one of relatively few European businesses to be put under the spotlight in Brussels where officials and campaigners have mainly focused on US multinationals.

The report alleged that the company avoided paying tax on 84 per cent of the €14.3bn in royalty income it received from Ikea stores around the world, although it said a “definitive” calculation of the tax savings was not possible given a lack of data in the public domain.

Ikea Group said it could not comment on the report which it had not seen. But it said in its last financial year it paid €822m of corporate tax at an effective rate of 19 per cent, plus €700m of other taxes such as property levies.

It said: “The Ikea Group pays taxes in accordance with laws and regulations, wherever we are present as retailer, manufacturer or in any other role. We have a strong commitment to manage our operations in a responsible way and to contribute to the societies where we operate.”

Molly Scott Cato, the Green tax policy spokesperson said: “Ikea has deliberately created this multilayer company model to enable it to shift hundreds of millions of euros through several EU tax havens, with Liechtenstein the end destination for much of this, to make sure it remains untaxed.”

The structure was set up by Ingvar Kamprad, the 89-year-old founder of Ikea, who split his company in two in the 1970s, placing each half under the ownership of a foundation to give Ikea “eternal life”. Ikea is split into the Ikea Group, which is the main franchisee, and Inter Ikea, which owns the rights.

The MEPs said that Ikea found new ways in recent years to shift profits and said proposals recently put forward by the commission to tackle tax avoidance would not fully address their concerns.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.Where did officials and campaigners pay attention to about US multinationals?

a. Brussels

b. Luxembourg

c. Amsterdam

d. London

2.How many percent of in royalty income did Ikea avoided paying tax according the report?

a. 19%

b. 84%

c. 19%

d. 22%

3.Where is the end destination of Ikea’s “optimised tax structure”?

a. Netherlands

b. Sweden

c. Belgium

d. Liechtenstein

4.Who set up “optimised tax structure” for Ikea?

a. Its founder

b. Its CEO

c. Government of Sweden

d. EFA group

[1] 答案 a. Brussels

解釋：比利時首都布魯塞爾成為美國跨國公司在歐洲被關(guān)注的焦點。

[2] 答案 b. 84%

解釋：報告稱該公司在143億歐元的版稅收入上避稅84%

[3] 答案 d. Liechtenstein

解釋：最后流入歐洲中部小國列支敦斯登。

[4] 答案 a. Its founder

解釋：如今已經(jīng)89歲的創(chuàng)始人Ingvar Kamprad建立了這樣的方式。